A year before he was charged with trying to ignite a bomb at Portland's 2010 holiday tree lighting ceremony, Mohamed Mohamud exchanged 44 emails with an undercover FBI operative who called himself Bill Smith.

Their email exchange, recounted in recent court filings, began Nov. 9, 2009, and eventually broached the subject of jihad on U.S. soil. But prosecutors and Mohamud's defense team differ wildly in their interpretations of the correspondence.

Mohamud's defense team contends in court papers that the emails show the FBI was trying to induce the Somali-American teen into committing a crime, a key element of their entrapment defense. But prosecutors argue that Mohamud didn't ignore or question what Smith wrote -- he offered advice on staying under the radar.

"(I) would advise you move to a more populated Muslim area," Mohamud wrote. "For security be more careful, its a good thing you talked to me because you can get tricked into saying something that will get you into trouble for nothing ... But don't put yourself out there. There are lots of spies."

Smith didn't listen.

"It looks like there has been some action against the (W)est in the last few weeks," he wrote on Dec. 1, 2009. "(I) cant tell you how easy it should be to bring any community here in the (W)est to its knees."

Mohamud responded, "(B)rother, i don't think you should talk about such issues, especially online."

Prosecutors' argument

Prosecutors contend in court papers filed last week that the FBI operative never suggested Mohamud take part in domestic terrorism or travel outside the U.S. for violent jihad. They also said Bill Smith never asked Mohamud to support any person or organization.

"On the contrary," they wrote, "Smith clearly was seeking advice from (Mohamud) about what Smith can do for 'Ummah' (the faithful Islamic world), and he provided (Mohamud) numerous opportunities to steer him away from violence."

Mohamud was arrested in an FBI sting Nov. 26, 2010, and accused of attempting to commit an act of domestic terrorism in the name of Islam. The former Oregon State University student, now 20, is charged with attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction, a crime potentially punishable by life in prison.

The bomb Mohamud is accused of attempting to ignite was a realistic looking fake, rigged by the FBI and loaded into a van parked across the street from Pioneer Courthouse Square. Thousands of revelers gathered there for the lighting of a towering conifer.

Lawyers for the prosecution and defense have spent the last few months wrangling over disclosure of evidence in the case. The court file in Mohamud's case now totals more than 800 pages, although about 80 pages contain classified materials not made public.

FBI task force an issue

Mohamud's defense team also seeks prosecution materials related to their client and Portland's renewed participation in the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force.

Portland withdrew officers from the task force in 2005, citing civil liberties concerns. But when the FBI didn't tell the city about its investigation of Mohamud until after his arrest, it became "politically untenable" for city leaders not to take part in the task force, defense lawyers wrote. Their filing suggests the government used publicity about the case to goad the city into rejoining the task force.

Though the city voted in April 2011 to provide officers, as needed, to the team, government prosecutors rebutted the suggestion that Mohamud's arrest had any connection to the FBI task force controversy.

"Defendant is suggesting that despite the fact that (Mohamud) selected the date and time for the planned attack, the prosecution team ... somehow manipulated a major criminal investigation in an effort to potentially secure the reassignment of two Portland police officers to a task force that already contains dozens of federal agents," prosecutors wrote. "This argument is untethered from reality."